He was charged with murder, rape, torture, pillaging, kidnapping, and destroying internally displaced people’s settlements.
(FILES) Suspected LRA (Lords Resistance Army) member Thomas Kwoyelo is pictured during a pre-trial session at the High Court in Kampala on Februay 1, 2017. (Photo by GAEL GRILHOT / AFP)
Following a historic war crimes trial for his involvement in the LRA’s two-decade reign of terror, former commander Thomas Kwoyelo was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Ugandan court on Friday.
(FILES) Suspected LRA (Lords Resistance Army) member Thomas Kwoyelo is pictured during a pre-trial session at the High Court in Kampala on Februay 1, 2017. – A Ugandan court on October 25, 2024 sentenced former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison after a landmark war crimes trial over his role in the group’s two-decade reign of terror.The sentence against Kwoyelo, who was convicted on 44 counts of crimes against humanity in August, was announced by Michael Elubu, the lead judge in the case at the court in the northern city of Gulu. (Photo by GAEL GRILHOT / AFP)
A member of the dreaded group, which led a two-decade uprising against President Yoweri Museveni, was being tried for war crimes in a Ugandan court for the first time.Michael Elubu, the case’s lead judge at the International Crimes Division (ICD) of the high court in the northern city of Gulu, announced the sentence against Kwoyelo, who was found guilty in August on 44 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He was charged with murder, rape, torture, pillaging, kidnapping, and destroying internally displaced people’s settlements.Kwoyelo, who was kidnapped by the LRA when he was twelve years old and later rose to the position of low-level commander, had previously denied all of the accusations made against him.
(FILES) Thomas Kwoyelo a commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebellion blamed for brutal civilian murders during a 20-year war in the north of the country is brought into a courthouse in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu on July 25, 2011. – A Ugandan court on October 25, 2024 sentenced former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison after a landmark war crimes trial over his role in the group’s two-decade reign of terror.The sentence against Kwoyelo, who was convicted on 44 counts of crimes against humanity in August, was announced by Michael Elubu, the lead judge in the case at the court in the northern city of Gulu. (Photo by MICHELE SIBOLINI / AFP)
Joseph Kony, a self-styled prophet and former altar boy, founded the LRA in Uganda in the 1980s with the intention of instituting a government founded on the Ten Commandments.During its uprising, which swept from Uganda to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic, over 100,000 people were killed and 60,000 children were kidnapped.